Rejoice!

Over the past few weeks at the Gathering we have been studying Philippians. This past sunday one of our campus pastors was talking about her 1 year old son, and about when he gets happy he throws himself into her and smashes his face into her body. That is his way of rejoicing. She continued by talking about how even though there is still so much crap in this world, we are called to REJOICE!

We as humans do enough complaining as it is. When tragedy strikes, rejoicing is the last thing we want to do, which is why it's so important. The hardest things to do are the things most worth it. That has been what I have been trying to work on this week; is rejoicing even when you don't want to. God deserves our praise always, especially when we don't want to give it.

Philippians 4:4 "Rejoice in the Lord always, I will say it again: Rejoice!"

Prayer room

There is this building on my campus that is right next to my dorm, and inside there is a litte room called the prayer room. It's really small but very relaxing and homey. There are lights around the room, altars, benches and chairs. There are things all around the room on the walls, just encouraging words, bible verses or sayings. There are drawings and pieces of art that students have made all over the room also. There are a whole bunch of Bibles, ones in like every translation In the room too. My favorite thing though are the journals. There are journals dating all the way back to some of the first Hope students. In these journals are lots of different things; some have prayers in them, some have stories and some are just people writing their thoughts. My friend Ali took me here one day when I was feeling down and after my experience I keep coming back. There usually aren't alot of people in there because it's always open so there is a lot of time people can go and be in there. It's so encouraging to be in this room, not only because of all the prayers and words of encouragement all over the room but it's amazing to see some of your classmates in there as well. This is now one of my favorite places on campus because it's so peaceful. It is the PERFECT place to be with God. It's the perfect place to realize you are not alone in your walk with Christ. It is the most relaxing place on campus. Sometimes I go in there just to lay down and listen to worship music; it's that comfortable and relaxing. I am so blessed to be at this school; because of all the amazing places, things and people here. PTL!!

The Pull

Right now I am a freshman at Hope College in Holland Michigan, and I am absolutely loving it! The second week of school, I started doing something called the Pull. I knew a lot of people that had done in it in the past, and when I knew I was going to Hope, this was definitely something I knew I had to do.

Now to try and describe what the Pull is, is like impossible. But I'll do my best. The Pull is one of the oldest college traditions in history, it was started 113 years ago. It is a competition between the freshman and the sophomore classes. Juniors coach the freshman and Seniors coach the sophomores. Season is three weeks long, with practices monday-friday from 3-6. Then the two saturdays in season practice is from 8am-4pm. It's a huge time commitment for three weeks, but when Pull day comes, it is so worth it. Now I have played sports my entire life, as did everyone else on the team, and they would all back me up that Pull conditioning is way harder than any sports conditioning. So just imagine doing that for three weeks straight every single day. Now that you may have gotten a sense for how hard Pull is, I will continue. There are 20 guys and 20 girls on the team. The boys are the Pullers and the girls are the Moralers. NO, WE ARE NOT CHEERLEADERS. just thought i would clarify.

Anyways, one of our coaches is standing in front of all the pits doing certain hand motions that we call, 'call sets.' The way the Pullers are laying on the rope, they can't see up front, so their eyes are on us, moralers at all times. And our eyes are on the caller at all times. We have certain things we say and do to let the pullers know what they are supposed to be doing with the rope. Now pull day is EXTREMELY loud, so us girls had to learn how to say things in a "moral voice". Which is a very loud, very deep sounding voice so the boys can hear us. So when pull day comes around, the boys are in lots and LOTS of pain for three hours max, sometimes less. This year us as freshmen were obviously the under dogs, and everyone was expecting us to lose. Well we did lose, but we have been the only freshmen class in a very long to make it last the full three hours. Everyone was extremely impressed with our team, and we now are getting physched to beat the freshmen next year.

Now from day one, our coaches were telling us that we were gonna be family. None of us actually thought they were gonna be right. We spent about 5-6 hours together everyday for three weeks straight, to say the least, we became a family. Now I am best friends with people on that team. We went through, LOTS of pain, LOTS of tears, LOTS of fun, LOTS of bleedng, and other crazy things together, so of course we bonded.




Each puller had to pick a moraler they wanted to be paired with for the season, and then they had to show up at our door and like 'propose' to us. That's when the bond begins. Trying to explain the bond between a puller and a moraler is also sort of impossible. Us moraler's are like a mix between their girlfriend and their mother. We are responsible for our puller's well being. The puller's go through so much pain every single time they are on the rope, it is our job to be right next to their face screaming at them, and encouraging them. It doesn't sounds important, I know. BUT if you ask any puller, they will tell you they couldn't do it without us. Some puller and moralers end up getting married, dating or just become very good friends. It's understandable why; we go through the worst pain we have ever experienced together, give each other massages, gifts, and do pretty much everything together for three weeks straight. That at least describes my relationship with my puller, James. Even though Pull is done now, our relationship is still just as strong. Our coaches always encouraged us to realize that our bond and our closeness will not end just because Pull is over.






I am so extremely grateful for this experience. It gave me amazing friends, and taught me how i don't have any limits. Pull pushes you to do things you never thought were possible for you to do. Now when walking around campus, when I see someone from my 14 family, we have a nice long hug :) i love this family.

Recap of Summer.

This summer was one of the hardest for me to get through, which means it was also one of the most stretching summers. God stretched me in so many different ways. He tested my patience, my ability to trust, my flexibility and so many other things. In one of the first weeks of the summer, something happened in my life that taught me to really, truly talk to God about my problems and issues. I had to 100 % lean on what Christ was telling me and directing me to do. Although my mind and my own feelings were telling me to do one thing, I knew the Holy Spirit was telling me differently. I really learned how to trust the Lord when he is directing me.

Another big thing that God taught me this summer, was to really let people help me. At camp this year I was really pushed to lean on others, it was one of the most exhausting weeks of my life. So I really learned that I couldn't do it all on my own, I needed to lean on the others counselors, my co-counselor, etc. Camp was another place where my patience was testing in several different occasions, but because of that, it made me really aware that I needed to talk to the Lord about it. I talked to the Lord so much during that week, which made me realize I don't talk to him near as much as I should.

My missions trip to Chicago taught me again to lean on my team members, and on Christ. But it also taught me how to be a better leader, since this was the first missions trip I was a leader for. One of the best experiences of my life, and I am thankful for that trip. I was very hesitant to go on this trip for several different reasons but God was teaching me to trust him completely and just jump in head first. I did, and it was so incredibly worth it.

I think the most important thing I learned this summer was definitely how to forgive. Something happened this summer that i became extremely bitter about, and very angry toward someone. At least that's how it started, but what God was seeking desperately for me to grasp was the fact that I needed to forgive. Papa B has always said in his messages, "hurt people, hurt people." I had to remember that. So even though I was hurt by someone and something, I had to remember they did this because they as well are hurting. Even though I so badly wanted to be so upset, I knew I had to just pray for this person because they wouldn't have done what they did if they weren't hurting. Instead of lashing out and being angry, I just needed to passionately pray for them.

The Lord softened my heart to lot's of people and lot's of things this past summer. One of my role models and I decided this was going to be the summer of Reconciliation. It was definitely that. I am truly blessed with an amazing Father in Heaven, who only wants the best for me. Praise the Lord!!

CA CA CA!

What is Camp Adventure?
Camp is...

where long car rides are actually fun.













where you get to spend a week with an amazing group of middle schoolers.













where you have the greatest cluster leaders.













where you get to spend a week with your friends.













where you get to give Jesus a high five by being blobbed.













where you get to share God's most powerful moments with brothers.













and your sisters.













where you get to spend the greatest week of your life with family.













where you spend everyday, all day with your best friends.

















where clusters work to be rewarded with a two by four & think its the greatest thing ever.













where muddy slip n slides happen.













where new friends are made.













where you spend a week with an amazing, inspiring co-counselor.













where friendships were once made & continued to grow throughout the years.













where LOTS of sweating happens.













where rhythmic movement night is the best workout you will ever have













where the most insane, powerful, crazy, greatest worship happens.













where inspirational leaders give everything they have all week long.













where counselors are actually excited to jump off the high dive in your clothes at midnight.













where hundreds of students & leaders lives are drastically changed by the Lord.

picture time..

Since my last post didn't have any pictures, I will just have to show you how much fun was has in Chicago 2010! This is what I enjoyed about the trip...

Sharing a hotel room with the craziest- most awesome group of girls..














Wrestling over starbursts..













Forming relationships with some of the greatest middle schoolers ever..













Insulating an entire basement with one of my best friends..













Riding around in bumper cars playing whirly ball..













Taking rapid movement pictures with my roommates..













Making fools out of ourselves at public places & lOVIN IT..


























Being on top & looking out to the greatest city..


























Still making fools out of ourselves in public places & STILL lovin it..






























Being able to serve under some of the greatest leaders out there..













Spending time with our future leaders & the future world-changers..













Being bruised & tired, but still wanting to keep going only by God's strength..













Having LOTS of these because of how exhausted you are..

















Serving the Lord & the city of Chicago with amazing people..













Chicago '10 was unforgettable. Praise Jesus!

Chicago Mission 2010

Signing up for missions was the hardest thing for me this year because I have gone on the Mexico mission trip for three years. And this year I felt God telling me "No, Nicole you are actually not going to MX this summer, you are going to help out the middle school group and go on Chicago." I was extremely hesitant for multiple reasons to sign up for Chicago, but who was I to deny God's plan for me. So I signed up. Johnny told me in person that I would be one of the many leaders going on this trip, but he also wanted to talk to me about possible complications/problems that could happen on the trip. And honestly after that little meeting, I knew 100% that I was supposed to be going on this trip. We had 3 boy students & 6 girl students and the rest were all leaders (we had 23 people on our team.) so I knew it would be a little strange since there were so little middle schoolers but man did those few middle schoolers SHINE! I have never seen students, let alone middle school students work that hard, have that amazing of attitudes and shine for Christ that much. I'm not going to talk about every single thing we did, you can find that at the teams blog www.gsmchicago.blogspot.com. The thing that amazed me the most was our teams ability to get along & work together. There was not one fight, there was absolutely NO drama, we honestly all just bonded so much and got along so well! This was by far the most tight group of teammates I have ever been apart of. I call myself EXTREMELY blessed to have been apart of such a team. Blessed to have witnessed absolutely astounding leadership, both from our trip leader & from all the other leaders. But also blessed to have been able to witness God so up close and personal in every single student on the trip. After the trip was over I remember just falling to my knees thanking God for placing me on this trip with this team, because I grew an unmeasurable amount from this trip! We changed lives on this trip, whether it was feeding the homeless, working on work projects or walking into a Hindu temple in Little India. Not only the lives of the people in Chicago, but our own lives. God wrecked each and everyone of our worlds in the most miraculous ways. That trip changed my life and I will never forget it. I can't wait to see what God will do when we take everything we learned and experienced in Chicago and bring it back home and apply it to our lives here. Praise Jesus!

How people define teenagers..

After hearing Papa B speak at our last FCA I headed over to martins until I had to go to school to spend some time with Jesus. I had a donut, energy drink, my iPod and my bible and journal. I continued to read in James because that's where the Chicago team is studying to prepare for our trip. So I am sitting there reading and journaling and I couldn't help but notice people starring at me. But it wasn't just the ususal stare I get when I pray, or read the bible in public, this one was different. I was wearing my penn tennis shirt so it was obvious that I was still in high school. Then I thought back to what DC has been saying for the past two weeks in our new series at GSM, "how to define a teenager." he was right. Those people were starring at me because I was doing something they wouldn't expect a teenager to do. Those people were starring at me because they were astounded at how what I was doing was mature and responsible. The stereotypes of teenagers never really bothered me until this morning. These people isn't just glance over, they were flat out starring at me. Is this really what people think about teenagers? About our generation? That we are lazy, immature, irresponsible and incapabl
of being serious. That's not what I want our generation to be known for.. God is calling my generation to be the deliverers of his love and word. We are called to be the ones to bring Gods kingdom from up there to down here. How are we supposed to do that when we live up to those hurtful stereotypes? That is not who God is calling us to be.. It's time to change how people define teenagers!

Hillsong United

This past weekend I went to the Hillsong United concert in Chicago. I went with my my sister and three of my best friends. We all met at my house before leaving and we were pretty dang hyper and excited. Then we had the 2 1/2 hour car ride, but we had plenty of great music and some even better conversations, so it went by pretty quickly. We finally arrived at the Sears Centre and had to wait another hour before the doors even opened. While waiting in our seats I wa talking to Eden about our seats and how they weren't the greatest but she reassured me that there really wasn't a bad seat in this place. So once it started I didn't really worry about it too much anymore. First off, they are from Austrailia and so every time anyone of them talked it made me really happy cause they're accents were so tight! The third song they played was 'take it all' and of course all five of us got low on parts and did out little dances from GSM, it was awesome! It was absolutely inspiring to look around and see 10,000 people worshipping Christ right along with you. It was like nothing I have ever seen before, I'm so used to worshipping with my friends at church or at GSM and that's like a few hundred, but have ten thousand people lifting their hands to Christ and pouring their hearts out in worship was indescribable. One thing that really got to me was during one song I just sat down in my seat and watched people. More specifically I watched the people on the floor. All in front of the stage there were huge crowds of people on half of the floor but the other half was pretty much empty with a few random 15-20 people just scattered by themselves. Those people gave me chills, the way they worshipped was like nothing I had ever seen. Their passion to just be closer to God was inspiring. There were people falling on their knees in worship and dancing around and just giving everything they had. Earlier that night I was so bummed out that we weren't on the floor and I thought we had bad seats but by this time I was so thankful to God for putting us where he did. If I would have been on the floor that night I would not have experienced what I did and been blessed like I was. That concert was a life changing experience. Thank you Jesus!!

Coming soon...

Coming soon to this blog... My take on TWILIGHT. Also, are twilight and peoples relationships with Christ similar? Can you compare the sensation of Twilight with the sensation of Christ? My opinion on all of this... Coming soon!!

Senioritis..

So I am suffering from this horrible disease called Senioritis. It is affecting pretty much I do. The symptoms are waking up everday, not wanting to go to school. It doesn't help that I am already enrolled in my dream college, so the end of high school seems pointless to me now. I know it's not and I need to finish strong, but doing it is the hard thing! So I am holding on and trying to finish my high school career strong! Dhdjdjnxndixnnzjajzjjkxhsujsh bdheysjbxnxiandhxbdhdjdnxhdjdhdusmsbxjqkdjjsowheoosldld didndpkdndbdidndkdppppwpwljdkdolskdo that was my venting sigh... Ok i feel better. Let's finish this thing!

Lie Log

So we were given this assignment in AP Psychology, to record every time you lie for seven days straight. Of course I wasn't planning on taking it seriously, but on the first day I was supposed to start recording I noticed something that was very unsettling. I lied a lot more than I thought I did. When I was finished with the project and was typing my reflection for it, I was astounded by the number. I mean it wasn't really that high of a number, but for someone who walks the past following Christ, it was a disappointing number. Truthfully, I was just surprised at how many times the lies I told were completely unnecessary. Of course, all lies are unnecessary, but most of the ones were just plain stupid, and easily could have been avoided. It's amazing how I didn't even notice this until I was given an assignment that made me realize it. From now on, I'm going to watch what I say, and I may even keep a real lie log to keep me in check.

"Be the CHANGE you wish to see in the world..."

Today was a day where i got to miss the ENTIRE day of school and go across the road from Penn, to the church, River Valley for this Challenge day thing. Of course I was excited I got to miss the entire day of school, but I figured this was just going to be one of Penn's cheesy, stupid ways to "stop bullying" and I knew it would probabaly fail, just like all the others do. I walked over with three of my best friends, Heather, Eden and Bentley, so I knew I would have a least a little fun. I really had NO idea what I was about to experience...

We first walked into the gymnasium, with loud rap music playing and about 20 adults making a tunnel just like us counselors do at camp, it was sweet! These adults varied BIG TIME. Our principal was there, plus 3 deans from Penn, then 4 counselors, 2 police officers, 2 pastors, a few teachers from Penn, and finally some parents. I had no idea what to expect from this whole thing. We were then greeted by two very upbeat, crazy individuals. Chris and Berneice were their names, and they were the two Challenge Day Directors we had. The first thing they had us do when we got in there was dance...ALOT. I was in SHOCK, to see some of the most serious people and adults I know, bustin' a move! So I went right with it and joined them. They played all sorts of music, and irronically enough, they played EVERY SINGLE song we play to dance to at Camp Adventure. I'm talking Jump Around, The train song, Apache, Cupid Shuffle, everything. So I immediately turned to Heather and told her this was just like CAMP!!! (Which gave us both more of an open mind about this thing.) So we continued on in the morning with all sort of cheesy, but surprisingly fun "get-to know you" games, and ALOT more dancing.

After lunch came the serious stuff. We were put into groups of about 5, plus one adult leader. They were called our "families" and we were to be spending most of the rest of the day with them. They made it a point to mix up genders, and make sure there were no friends in the group, so everyone would get the same experience. Chris & Berneice then told us their stories. They told us their struggles, their feelings they keep inside, and all about who they really are. Then they opened it up to us, and we were instructed to share with our "family" who we REALLY are and the struggles/experience we go through, being us. We each had to start with this sentence... "If only you knew who I really was, you would know that..." and then we were to continue on. Every person in my group had a different story. One was about divorced parents, one was about jugdments by not only friends by parents, another about growing up in the projects and watching gang violence. Each one was so incredibly different from my story. I grew up in a great home, with 2 parents who love eachother and me, and with an amazing older sister who is always there for me. At first I felt like my story wasn't important because it wasn't dramatic or hard, but my adult leader, who was a youth pastor, encouraged me that my story is just as important than any other person in the room.

After some long talks, which lead to a whole bunch of tears with our "families" we came back together as a whole group. We were about to play "Power Shuffle." What we had to do was, if something that was said, applied to us, then we had to the move across the line to the other side. Berneice gave us all sorts of things like... "if your parents are divorced"... "if you have ever been made fun of because of your body"..."if you have ever had lost someone to gang violence"..."if you know someone close to you who is homosexual"...and the most powerful one, "if you were ever able to just be a child." We did this for about 30 minutes. Whenever someone moved or shared anything everyone put up the "I Love You" hand signal, to let the person know we were listening and respecting them. The most remarkable thing to me was how little I knew about some people I considered my friends. Or how easily I had judged people based on whatever, and to see how wrong I was.

I went into this thing thinking it was going to be some dumb thing no one took seriously. Throughout the day I saw people who were the "cool" or "popular" guys crying their eyes out. Some guys I thought were real "tough" and "intimidating" apologizing to their best friends. I saw countless guys crying and hugging other guys, while talking about their feelings. I saw ex-friends become friends agian. I saw "bullies" apologizing to their "victims" and all of this was voluntary. I left today looking at my school, and the people in it in a completely different way. The very last thing we did was hear from our peers, on the microphone. We heard from about 50 students (which is more than half that was there) about promises they were going to make, steps they were going to take, apologies that needed to be made, compliments that were well deserved and just the TRUTH about that person.

This was one of the most inspiring things I have ever been apart of before. I saw people change their lives just because of things that were said or confessed today. People I used to judge, I now look at for who they really are, instead of making assumptions. Today made me appreciate my loving, caring and AMAZING parents. It made me really appreciate my big sister, who I used to take for granted. It made me take a good long look at my "best friends" and see how truly blessed I am. When we were finished, I took a minute to bow my head and thank God for everything he has blessed me with. I thanked him for today and what Challenge Day did to Penn High students. Most importantly, I thanked him for being in that room today. Even though his name may not have been mentioned much, the stuff that happened today were acts from our Lord and Savior. Praise The Lord!

We all made sperate committments today. Some of mine were to stop and meet someone instead of judging who you think they might be. Be appreciative of all that i have. Tell everyone important to me how much they mean to me all the time, before it's too late. Finally, to be the CHANGE I wish to see in this world!

If you want to check our more of Challenge Day, go to... www.challengeday.org

"For I know the plans I have made for you..."

I love how unpredictable God can be. I have thought that a few things in my life are for sure, and were always going to stay the same. It always seems, as soon as I get comfortable, God changes it just to get me out of my box. It's frustrating at times, but I'm learning to get used to these changes. I'm learning to let go of trying to control my own life and my future. It's in God's hands. He knows what is best for me, even better then I do. "I'm trusting in what you say, today is the day."